


The Children of the Gods

by Canaan



Series: The Children of the Gods [1]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-17
Updated: 2011-07-05
Packaged: 2017-10-14 20:38:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/153237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canaan/pseuds/Canaan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Don't get me wrong, I'm all for sex with vegetables, as long as they're sapient and consenting.  But this looks dangerous."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Heaven's Price

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter was originally a standalone ficlet written as a gift during Fandom Stocking 2010. The story is in an entirely different continuity than any of the others I write. Betaed by the ever-gracious Yamx, who did all of my stocking fics except her own (since I think I've forgotten to label some of them here).
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own them and I'm not making any money.  
> 

"Don't get me wrong, I'm all for sex with vegetables, as long as they're sapient and consenting. But this looks dangerous," Jack said.

The Doctor glared down at them, so wrapped up in the vine that wound around the tree he'd been inspecting that it looked a lot like that dreadful 22nd-century tentacle porn he and Rose had been laughing at in the screening room last week. By the way she was trying to smother her giggles, he'd bet she had the same thought. Too bad they couldn't fix this problem by throwing popcorn at it.

"Oi!" the Doctor barked. "Not nearly as funny as it looks! The tree's called 'Spear of Heaven,' and I don't fancy being turned into a gibbering imbecile and then eaten by it, so maybe you lot could shut it and lend a hand?"

"A hand" proved to be a run back to the TARDIS for isofoam and a spare screwdriver. The screwdriver withered the bits of vine holding the Doctor, his sudden descent to the ground punctuated by a puff of dead vegetable matter, an emphatic thump, and a curse the TARDIS wouldn't translate. Rose flinched and took a reflexive step toward him.

"Contamination risk," Jack reminded her, setting the nozzle on the isofoam to a wide spray. "Hey Doc, if this ruins your jacket, can I talk you into a shorter one next time?"

If the Doctor growled at him, Jack couldn't hear it over the spray of the foam. He felt Rose punch his arm, though. It was cute the way she blushed, even though she was grinning a bit.

Once the thick layer of isofoam had bound any loose particles beneath it and the Doctor had cleared his eyes, nose, and ears, they started back toward the TARDIS. "So, carnivorous tree--I get that," Jack said. "But then why was it the vine trying to get into your trousers?"

Rose spluttered a laugh. Jack couldn't see the Doctor's scowl under the isofoam, but the Glare of Impending Doom was perfectly intact. He grinned, unrepentant.

"Symbiotes," the Doctor answered eventually, his voice tense and unhappy. "The Spear of Heaven wouldn't grow that tall on its own. The vine's called 'Price of Heaven,' and it feeds off the tree. Catches animals, holds 'em until they die, and drops them at the base of the tree as fertilizer."

"Like a Venus fly trap," Rose said thoughtfully. "But then why the foam? All we had to do was break you free with the spare sonic--no reason to leave you looking like the abominable snowman."

The Doctor shrugged. "It's not exactly harmless. The fibers from the vine, I mean."

"To humans," Jack said, trying to read the expression in the Doctor's eyes. "This is the part where you say 'but only to humans,' right?"

***

There were advantages to the isofoam. It protected Jack and Rose, it let the Doctor get into the TARDIS without contaminating anything, and it hid some of the unfortunate side effects of his exposure to the Price of Heaven. Deep breaths and a Time Lord's bio-control let him send Jack and Rose off to get themselves dinner while he stepped into the medbay and locked the door behind him.

He had his clothes in the decontamination locker for cleaning, an injection of antagonist on a tray next to the bath, and one foot in the tub when Jack said, "You're going to need someone to scrub your back."

The Doctor startled, slipped, and gave Jack an unfortunate eyeful before ending up mostly in the tub. He bit back a curse at Herself for unlocking the door. "Stay back," he said. "There's still fibers from where it got inside my clothes." After a moment to make sure Jack wasn't getting any closer, he dunked himself under the surface of the neutralizing bath, scrubbing briskly at his short hair and trying not to remember the feel of the damn vine slithering across his skin.

He was sure this could be worse somehow. He just wasn't sure how. And Jack was right, blast it: he couldn't scrub his own back thoroughly enough to be certain he'd got all the fibers off his skin and into the neutralizer. While they were wet, they weren't a danger. With everything sloughed off in the bath, only what he'd already inhaled or absorbed through his skin would remain.

Jack was talking, though the Doctor couldn't make out the words through the viscous fluid of the bath. That tore it--he was a bad influence on his companions; he'd got _them_ talking to the TARDIS, too.

Except the TARDIS didn't usually answer in a soprano voice.

Oh yes, this was definitely worse.

***

Rose leaned against Jack, wondering when the universe had got this weird. Maybe it always had been, and _she_ was the one who'd changed.

The Doctor had reached a hand out for a flannel without ever coming up for air, and he'd been down there quite a while. She wasn't gawking, or not much, but she felt better for being able to see him. After all, he wasn't drowning himself as long as he was still scrubbing.

When he came up for air, he glared at them both. "Don't you have something better to do?" He growled as he took the hypo-spray off the tray beside the bath and jabbed it against a spot in his elbow. Jack squeezed her shoulders briefly, then picked up a fresh flannel and soaked it in the purple fluid of the bath before scrubbing at the Doctor's back.

Rose asked, "So how bad is a Class B sex pollen, Doctor?"

His eyes went comically wide. "Jack!"

Jack kept scrubbing. "It was in the TARDIS's databanks. Price of Heaven. I didn't even know sex pollens really existed--they belong in the kind of story you tell your buddies in the bar for a laugh."

"Yeah, real funny until you actually run into one. They're rare, but the universe is a big place, " the Doctor growled. He glanced back at Rose, then closed his eyes. "Not as bad as a Class A sex pollen. There's an antagonist, but it takes a while. Go away. Please." The anger bled out of his voice, leaving only misery.

She knelt down beside the tub so he didn't have to look up at her. "You don't have to be miserable, you know," she said. "I mean, if you just want me . . . us . . . both of us, either of us . . . to really go away, we will." She swallowed--she couldn't keep from blushing, but she wasn't going to snivel like a lovelorn teenager, either. "Only . . . would it be so bad? Are humans really that different?" She found herself gripping the edge of the tub in her hands, her chin resting on the edge.

He flinched. "No, Rose, of course not, I didn't mean it like that . . . "

"It's up to you, Doctor," Jack said. "No reason you can't tough it out or fly solo. It's not like you're going to die of exposure and get fed to a tree at this point. But you know, if you'd rather have a friendly hand, you've got two friends on the ship."

Rose nodded, even though the Doctor couldn't see her. She waited. "Doctor?" she asked softly.

He didn't answer, sitting with his eyes still closed. She was afraid to move, almost afraid to breathe. Jack finished scrubbing. He put the flannel aside and lay his hand on the Doctor's shoulder.

The Doctor drew a deep breath. He held it a long while; then he opened his eyes and let it go. He covered Jack's hand with one of his own and put the other on top of hers. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he swallowed and tried again. "Thanks," he said.


	2. Fallen Angels

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once upon a time, about six months ago, I wrote a little ficlet called "Heaven's Price." A lot of people very strongly requested that I write the next part, but I had some other things to do first. By now, the whole thing has percolated in the back of my head and got big and complicated, to the point where it's in an entirely different continuity than any of my other fanfic. So the story is expanding. The new title is "The Children of the Gods," and the original ficlet is now the first chapter. This is the second. Enjoy the porn, girls and boys, because I haven't written the concluding chapter yet and it's likely to contain a lot less sex and a lot more Issues.
> 
> BR by the diligent and delightful Yamx. Disclaimer: I don't own them and I'm not making any money.

Jack would, he decided, be happy just getting these two crazy kids into bed with each other. It had been utterly clear from the moment he teleported them into his ship that the Doctor and Rose were in love, and that the Doctor's prickly Time Lord pride would keep them from ever getting it on.

Sex pollen was good for something, then. Even if the incident had scared the crap out of Jack before he really understood what was going on. Jack watched Rose pretending not to watch the Doctor rinse the neutralizer fluid off his skin. "Not bad at all," he murmured to her, mostly to see her blush and jump.

"Jack," she hissed, "that's not . . . ." She trailed off, and a loss for how to finish that thought.

"Trust me, beautiful, it's entirely appropriate to admire somebody you plan on shagging. Is your bed big enough? Feel free to use mine—I can go work out for a while." Jack certainly planned to be in the TARDIS's gym, though he had a funny feeling he'd mostly be taking cold showers.

Rose looked up at him, too earnest and worried to laugh or stammer or punch him in the shoulder. "How do you know the invitation's just for me?"

Jack grinned to hide just how much the answer to that question hurt and lowered his voice further. "Even if it wasn't, Rose, I know when you're from. Are you really going to tell me you're comfortable with the idea of more than two people in bed together?"

She frowned and opened her mouth to reply, but the med bay's shower stopped. Jack grabbed the towel he'd found in a drawer labeled "linens" and tossed it to the Doctor.

"Ta," the Doctor said, drying off and wrapping the towel around his waist. Not like it was hiding much, given the physical effects of the Price of Heaven. From what Jack had read, that antagonist would be a while having its effect: the Price of Heaven stimulated the host's own body to produce the chemicals involved in sexual arousal, and the antagonist was engineered to locate the contaminant and break it down into harmless compounds. It was the search-and-destroy process that ate time, and afterwards, the arousal itself had to dissipate naturally.

Jack would love to help make that dissipation as enjoyable as possible. But he really didn't see it happening.

Rose was being polite, for certain 21st century definitions of polite, and looking away. Jack caught her eye and grinned, just to see if he could get her to smile back. She did, but it was weird. Awkward.

"Change your minds?" the Doctor asked. His voice was very quiet, with a brusqueness that was close cousin to his earlier fierce embarrassment. "You can, you know."

Minds. That was interesting.

Rose blushed, but gave the Doctor a steady look. "Of course not."

"Never," Jack said, "but Rose—"

"Can speak for herself, thanks," she said.

The Doctor looked back and forth between the two of them like he knew he was missing something, but then Rose stood up and twined her fingers into his and he visibly lost his concentration. "Come along, then?" he asked.

Jack wasn't sure if it was a suggestion or a plea. He didn't wait to find out; he got to his feet and followed where the Doctor led.

***

The only thing worse than understanding that he was about to engage in sexual behaviors with sapients who weren't at least Omicron-class was how very much the Doctor wanted it. Desire shouldn't steal one's breath away, impede rational thought, and threaten one's companions. Humans were always coloring the air with pheromones, but it wasn't generally too bothersome to ignore them. Now, with the Price of Heaven in his system, Rose's hand in his was far too warm, and the unbroken line of Jack's neck far too inviting.

He wasn't sure about taking them to his bedroom, but he couldn't think of any place more suited. In the end, he decided he'd feel most at ease there. Having surrendered to the inevitability of it, he trusted the TARDIS to make the necessary preparations. When he opened the door, the bed was more than wide enough for three. He hesitated just inside the doorway, but Rose tugged at his hand, leading him over to the bed, and Jack followed them, closing the door behind himself.

The Doctor looked down at Rose's earnest, waiting face. He looked over at Jack, hovering nervously by the door, and saw compassion tempering the lad's desire. He looked back at Rose, opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and still didn't know what to say.

She reached up to twine her hands around the back of his neck and drew him down for a kiss. She tasted human: something a bit like woodsmoke and sunshine in a way he couldn't really explain down beneath the lemon bite from the ices they'd had after lunch. She tasted human, but she looked Time Lord, they always looked Time Lord, and that was the dangerous part. Humans were one of those species that looked so very much the same a well-meaning Time Lord could convince himself it didn't hurt anyone to dally with them.

A kiss was the same between their two species, and if the skin under his hands was too warm as he slid them up the length of her back beneath her shirt, that was easy to ignore. She pressed against him, a deliberate shift of legs and hips that brought her belly against his erection. The pressure made him groan as unfamiliarly unchecked impulses swam along his nerves, driving him to action without the ameliorating influence of the intellect.

And this, this was why one didn't tarry with unsophisticated sapients in this way. It _always_ hurt them. He just hadn't realized until he heard Rose's anguished question whether humans were really so different—whether it was really better to suffer alone than to be that kind of intimate with a pair of humans who cared about you so deeply—that he was going to hurt them either way.

But not like this. He was over her on the bed, rutting against her like an animal, with only the faintest recollection of getting there. It didn't matter that they were still separated by her trousers and his towel; it didn't matter that she was making small pleasure noises to match his own hungry ones. He managed to drag himself away from her, losing the towel as he crawled back along the bed and knelt, hands clutching his thighs. "No," he said aloud. Rose leaned up on her elbows and looked at him, confused and a little hurt. Jack's hand—and when had Jack come so close?—rested on his shoulder. "No. If we're going to do this, I want it to be more than just that. I want it to be . . . worth remembering, at least." Because they would remember, even if it might be better for all concerned if they didn't.

Lips brushed the crown of his head. Rose knelt beside him on the bed. "Okay," she agreed quietly. "How do we manage that?"

"Let me take the edge off, Doctor," Jack said, sinking to his knees on the floor beside the bed. He licked his lips.

Rassilon, just the sight of his tongue— "Jack, I've got no control right now," the Doctor protested.

"I know." Jack rested a hand on his knee and the Doctor shivered. "It's kind of hot, actually. Relax, Doc, I can take it. Hell, I plan to enjoy it."

The Doctor surrendered with a whimper. He submitted to Jack's chivvying, turning so he sat on the edge of the bed with Jack between his spread knees. He had half a thought for Rose, hoping she really was as comfortable with this multiplicity of partners as she seemed, and then Jack's lips went around him, scaldingly hot, and thought of any kind became a distant memory.

***

As far as things Rose had never thought she'd see in her life, watching Jack close his lips around the Doctor's cock was nowhere near as high on the list as seeing the end of the Earth or meeting zombies. But it did make the list. And that would have been . . . a shame, because the look of quiet bliss on Jack's face was beautiful, and the sounds the Doctor was making were incredible. Rose sat back on her bum so she could toe off her sandals and dropped them over the edge of the bed fall to the floor, looking up just in time to hear the Doctor growl and watch Jack shift his head. The Doctor's hips shifted, coming to rest against Jack's lips as he slid all the way inside.

Rose blinked and hugged her knees to her chest. She hadn't known that was even possible in real life. The lace of her bra itched, suddenly uncomfortable in a way it hadn't been even in the jungle's heat, and she was acutely aware of the seam of her denim shorts where it pressed into her flesh. She folded her legs tailor-fashion, glad neither of them was looking at her, and undid the clasp of her bra, snaking first one strap and then the other out past her elbows and off so she could slip out of it without removing her tank top. It made her more aware of the touch of soft fabric on her nipples as she watched the look on the Doctor's face and the way Jack's fingers dug into his hips.

They called this sex pollen the Price of Heaven. Rose had a feeling the Doctor wouldn't exactly call it heaven—not that he wasn't enjoying this, but he didn't like not being in control, and it didn't sound like it was going to stop anytime soon. He cried out as he came, and after Jack stilled and pulled away, Rose could see he was still mostly hard. As much as she'd sometimes wished Mickey could go more than one round with her, she had to wonder how long this would last before the antagonist really had its effect.

Long enough for her to have something she'd wanted with the Doctor. And Jack, too. Even if it was only this once.

The Doctor's fingers were laced through Jack's hair, and he used the grip to pull Jack up for a kiss almost frightening in its intensity, taking ownership of Jack's mouth. Jack gave as good as he got. Rose shivered, trying to find some position where she could sit without being tempted to wriggle the seam of her shorts more deeply between her legs and wondered if she was hopelessly outclassed. Usually, when she'd thought that, she was thinking about a lack of A-levels and useful skills, not a lack of previous boyfriends and experience.

They broke apart, and she swallowed, trying to clear the lump of worry from her throat. "Is there any of that left for me?" she wondered, trying to keep things light.

The Doctor's eyes fastened on her, dark with desire, and she felt her breath catch.

"Why, Rose," Jack teased, "whatever happened to your bra?"

Oh, no way was he getting away with that. Two could play that game. She grinned, the tip of her tongue peeking out from the side of her mouth, and lounged back on her elbows. "I'm not sure. You two could come help me find out." Because it wasn't like she hadn't thought about both of them. It had been more than a few months of just her and her vibrator, and honestly, if she was going to have hopeless sexual fantasies, she might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb. And if Jack didn't stir her soul in quite the same way that the Doctor did, he was her best mate and fun and sexy, and damned if he was going to be left out of this.

By either of them.

***

Rose's challenge surprised Jack enough that for a minute, he just stared. It was a particularly pleasant minute as he watched the Doctor crawl back up the bed toward her. Her eyes fastened on the Doctor's face, and her nipples grew even better defined beneath the thin fabric of her tank top. Jack felt a goofy grin spread across his face as the Doctor whispered in her ear and laid her back on the bed. Her legs stretched out in front of her and the Doctor's mouth latched onto one hardened nipple, suckling at it through her shirt.

Jack thought he could be happy just watching—they were beautiful together. Rose's soft moan went straight to his cock as she clutched and kneaded up the Doctor's back with one hand. The other flailed out, reaching for him. "Jack?" she asked, her voice breathy. She was really okay with this. He didn't understand how, but she was really okay. And now she'd asked him twice.

Never let it be said that he'd made someone ask three times—he had a reputation to live up to. Jack stood up and took her hand, letting her draw him onto the bed and playing his fingers under the hem of her shirt. She shivered under his touch as he drew the fabric up, exposing the natural curve of one breast. He rubbed his thumb over the fine brown nipple in appreciation, enjoying Rose's soft inhalation in response.

She squirmed suddenly, and Jack looked down her body to see the Doctor's fingertips trailing over the smooth skin low down on her stomach. They paused, and the Doctor raised his head and asked quietly, "Should I stop?"

She gave a strangled laugh. "No," she said, plying her fingers affectionately through the short, dark stubble of his hair.

She squirmed some more as Jack kissed his way up the side of her neck. Oh, this was too much fun. "You're not ticklish, are you, Rose?" he murmured into her ear.

She turned her head, managing to plant a kiss half on his mouth. "Like I'm going to tell you."

He chuckled. "But if you don't, I'll have to find out for myself. A really thorough exploration might be in order sometime."

She shivered, and Jack looked away to find the Doctor had moved down the bed and was divesting her of her shorts and knickers. "Sometime," she said.

A strange, tight feeling surged in Jack's chest, and he turned back to her. Her eyelids fluttered and she gasped with pleasure, but she smiled at him, and he knew it wasn't just a distracted, half-thought response. It was a promise. Whether the Doctor was interested or not—and sadly, Jack thought he wouldn't be—there was more than this once for Jack and Rose. And Jack wanted that with an intensity that puzzled him, because it didn't make sense for just another cheerful tryst.

Sense was overrated. He followed the Doctor's lead, drawing Rose's shirt off over her head and enjoying the liberty he had to touch and taste and tease while the Doctor was busy with his head between her thighs. She gasped and moaned, and eventually complained, "Doctor. Please. 's not fair."

The Doctor didn't answer. "What's he doing?" Jack murmured in Rose's ear.

She whimpered. "It's what . . . he's _not_ . . . doing," she gasped out.

Jack chuckled and kissed her, letting her taste mix with the Doctor's in his mouth. When she stiffened and came beneath him, he ate all the little noises from her lips, reaching down to play his fingertips over her nipples. With the second orgasm, she bit at his lips and then pushed him away. "Air. Just need some air." He pulled away just in time to see her smile and then shudder with an aftershock.

Jack glanced at the Doctor just in time to see him kneel up between her legs, looking pleased with himself. Jack had wondered more than once whether the Time Lord was really sexual at all, or at least had any interest in humans, but if he wasn't, he certainly knew about a woman's sexual response. Jack backed down the bed far enough to kiss him and then licked Rose's juices off his face, eliciting gasps and moans of his own.

"You're still dressed," the Doctor murmured distractedly. "How are you still dressed? Have enough trouble getting you to wear trousers around the ship, and you pick _now_ not to be naked?" When Jack didn't answer except to laugh against his skin, he went on. "There's a drawer in the bedside table. There should be stuff."

Jack tried to keep up. "Stuff," he repeated. He moved farther up the bed and reached over to open the drawer. "Oh. Stuff." He dragged out an assorted handful of condoms, gloves, and lube, laying them out on a pillow for easier access. He ripped the top off a square packet before handing it to the Doctor. "I think you're looking for this."

"Condoms?" Rose complained. "I'm still on birth control."

"Not taking any chances," the Doctor muttered, discarding the little paper packet and rolling the offending prophylactic down his cock. _I am so going to do that with my teeth later on,_ Jack thought.

***

The difference in body temperature was shocking for a moment, but mostly, it was just such a relief to finally have the Doctor filling her. Rose clung to him, drawing her knees up and hooking her ankles together at the small of his back. God, she'd been wanting this so long, she'd long since given up on ever having him outside of her fantasies.

Of course, in her fantasies, she didn't have to worry about awkwardness like condoms and G-spots. She could have done this all day, but the Doctor was suffering, so she had to tell him, no matter how awkward it was. "Doctor," she said between moans, "don't wait for me."

It was like she could feel his confusion through his skin. He slowed down and looked into her eyes. And there she went again, blushing. "What?" he asked.

She matched his rhythm. "Don't . . . wait for me. I don't come from this. I like it. A lot. But I don't come this way. But I want you to."

He stopped. "But . . . ."

She growled. " _Don't_ stop, damn it. I was _enjoying_ that." She couldn't help looking over at Jack to see if he was laughing at her, but all she got was a sympathetic smile. He'd finally got undressed, and he crawled around to her other side and slid down the bed, nudging the Doctor pointedly even as he reached down to toy with one of Rose's nipples. Rose moaned and bucked against the Doctor.

It did get him started again. Rose moaned and angled her hips to meet him, reveling in every sensation. God, she wished she could put her brain on record. She wanted to remember every little moment of this, every thrust, every gasp, the exact feel of cool skin under her fingers and the way he murmured in her ear in a language she couldn't understand. His motions grew erratic, and as he stuttered to a stop, Jack's hand skimmed down her ribs and belly. She was watching the Doctor's face, so turned on that Jack barely had to touch her clit before she was coming again.

She got more relief out of it than the Doctor, who asked her very quietly, "Are you okay?"

She laughed a bit, breathlessly. "Doctor, I am so much better than okay. Go ahead."

He went ahead.

Jack hadn't even come yet, which didn't seem fair, but when she tried to say something between orgasms (and "tried" was the key word), he just smiled and said, "He needs it more than I do. Sooner or later, either you'll wear out or he'll be ready for a break. Worry about it then."

It was the Doctor, in the end, who gave a broken sigh and a small whimper of release, and finally pulled out of her, not instantly hard again. "Better?" Jack murmured.

The Doctor managed a smile, rolling away to lie beside her. "Yeah. At least for a little while."

Rose turned her head to look at Jack. "So now we get to worry about you, yeah?"

He grinned. "Unless we wore you out."

It made her blush, but it seemed a bit late to be embarrassed about enjoying the sex. And more than a bit tacky, since he'd been very careful to make sure she enjoyed it. "No way." She smiled back at him, catching her tongue between her teeth.

He put on a condom and knelt up on the bed, pulling her up with him. "You're not planning to go in the back door, are you?" she asked when he turned her around, too relaxed to be properly nervous. "Because I haven't done that before, and I'm not quite sure how it would turn out."

His lips brushed the crown of her head. "No. Just trust me, Rose."

She did. She lifted up when he told her to, murmured her approval as he slipped easily into her from behind, and let her head lie back against his chest. He moved in her gently, repositioning her once and twice. Pleasure stabbed through her, bright and intense, as he shifted her for the third time. "Oh my God!" she squeaked.

" _That's_ what I was looking for." She could hear the smile in his voice and he hugged her close. "Say hello to your G-spot, beautiful. Is this okay?"

It was funny, she thought, that he asked that question. This was Jack, after all—the way he talked, she'd have guessed him for the type to show off first and ask questions later. And God, that moment of pleasure was just on the edge of being too much. But in a way that made her want to try it again, not stop.

She nodded.

***

That you could get to be Rose's age and be sexual and not have had help exploring your body always struck Jack as criminal, no matter how much history he knew. Sex ought to be taught in Physical Education—expecting teenagers to fumble through it on their own without a clue what might feel good (or what might hurt) was an invitation to traumatic experiences. Rose had obviously expanded her horizons beyond what he'd expected of the early 21st century, but still, that she got to be almost twenty years old and he was the one teaching her this was . . . .

Appalling, was what it was. And yet somehow, that made it all the more precious that she trusted him to hold her and move with her and take her out of her safety zone and into a new experience. Her gasps and whimpers were gorgeous, just like the rest of her. He filled his hands with her breasts and her ears with his own groans. He was sure he could bring her like this, more than once if she could bear it, before he came, himself. After all, they had hours, probably, and Rose was worth waiting for.

They both were. He'd been so very lucky that night in the middle of the Blitz. Even if they didn't feel the same way. Even if it was never more than friendly sex to them. He could be a friend. He could do that.

"Beautiful." The Doctor's voice was soft in Jack's ears and very near. He opened his eyes, finding the other man on his knees beside them, watching. "Both of you."

Rose turned her head for a kiss that didn't come. She frowned, and her eyes roved the length of their lover's body. The Doctor hadn't had much of a break, Jack thought ruefully. Not that what he'd read on the Price of Heaven had led him to expect anything else. "This is a party for three, Doctor," he said, squeezing the words out between breaths.

"Mmm hmm." Rose's murmur of agreement was faint and short-lived. Her body went taut in his arms a split second before she clenched around his cock. He barely heard her cry out her pleasure as the sudden pressure overcame him. He knew they swayed dangerously together as he came apart more deeply, more profoundly than he had in a long time.

Then someone was holding him up. _I trust them,_ he realized with a shock, knowing the arms around him were the Doctor's, that he was holding them both steady. _More than I've trusted anyone in a long time._ "I was trying to wait." Jack wondered if he sounded as perplexed as he felt.

He sank back on his heels and let the Doctor take Rose from him, easing her to the bed. "Wow," she mumbled, looking back on Jack with a dazed smile.

"That sounds like an apology," the Doctor said, his eyes filled with the humor that didn't usually show on his face, no matter how broadly he might grin. "Stop it, Jack."

Jack let himself fall backward, laughing a bit. "No, just an observation." He peeled off the condom and let it fall to the floor beside the bed. "And it's still a party for three, even if we wore Rose out for a little while."

Rose made a rude noise. The Doctor said, "Looks like you need a break too, lad."

"Oh no." Jack drew his legs up in front of him and parted them, looking at the Doctor, who was painfully hard again, between his knees. "Just part of me does. And all of me is happy to be here."

The Doctor blinked, his expression unreadable.

Jack rolled his eyes and stared at the ceiling. He didn't know what kind of social taboos Time Lords had been subject to, but they must have been impressive. For all that he was certainly no stranger to sex, the Doctor was doing a bang up job of making this more difficult than it had to be. Jack took a deep breath and let it out slowly, letting his frustration go with it. He smiled and looked back at the Doctor. "I want you to fuck me," he said gently. "If you don't want to, that's okay. There are lots of other things I'd like to do with you. You choose."

A moment that looked unexpectedly like pain passed over the Doctor's face, and then he smiled. And again, it was a real smile, not the one he put on and took off like a hat. He climbed over Rose, who squeezed his hand in passing, and crawled up between Jack's legs, bending forward for a kiss.

It was less frenzied this time, and Jack had the leisure to investigate the Doctor's mouth, teasing at the line of his teeth and along a cool tongue. When the Doctor broke off, searching out a packet of lube from the unruly scatter beside Jack's head, Jack reached up and acquired a box of gloves. "Do you want one of these, or should I?" he asked. "Makes cleanup easier, since we're probably going to be here for a while."

The Doctor took a glove from the box. And yeah, the Doctor might not be in practice, but the cool fingers stretching Jack gently open knew what they were doing. He might not be sexual in general, but the noises he made with Jack's knees over his shoulders made Jack's certain he was enjoying it. And he might never be interested in Rose or Jack in this way again, but Jack would always be able to hold this moment in his head—coasting on pleasure with the Doctor buried deep in his body—and remember.

***

The Doctor lay between his companions, spooned behind Rose and moving slowly and without urgency inside her. Jack held the same leisurely pace on his other side, stroking in and out of the Doctor's body without conveying any real sense of need. There was no urge to rush to completion now, the three of them just enjoying being with each other, feeling each other. It was quietly beautiful, and no matter what happened after this—no matter what tomorrow held—this moment, this was his forever.

He reached back to lay a hand on Jack's hip, the affectionate gesture leading Jack to catch his breath and kiss the back of the Doctor's neck. The Doctor sighed softly, stirring Rose's hair. She made an inquisitive noise. He curled his arm around her again, rolling a nipple between his fingertips as he bent forward to kiss her temple. "I love you," she murmured.

If only that solved everything. This was going to be a right mess, no way around that. But just now, just this one night, he didn't want to think about it. There'd be time enough for that tomorrow. "I love you too," he said. "I love you both."

Jack made a sound of quiet approval and laid an arm across both of them.

The Price of Heaven had taken their afternoon and lasted into the evening, but now his body and soul were his own again. If the damned vine had given him two lovers he cared about, whom he could do nothing but hurt, it had also given him these precious minutes. He moved between them as he fondled Rose, for no better reason than that he wanted to.

Six hours and forty-seven minutes belonged to the drug, but this . . . this was just for him.


	3. Forbidden Fruit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter of The Children of the Gods. I don't know where this 'verse is going from here, or how fast. If you have ideas or requests, I'm open. I may make it a promptfic 'verse, or perhaps open it to other writers if anyone is actually interested. I guess we'll have to see.
> 
> WARNING: There is no actual violence happening on the page here, but there is a pretty graphic description of past violence.
> 
> Thanks once again to Yamx, for beta reading and reminding me that I made my own bed with this one, and now I had the lion it. *g* Disclaimer: I don't own them and I'm not making any money.

The Doctor stirred slowly, waking out of a deep, dreamless sleep. Before he'd even opened his eyes, he heard Jack say, "You sit on his legs; I'll grab his arms if he tries to roll you off."

"Wha—?" he asked lifting one eyelid just in time to see Rose, still naked, straddle his knees and set herself firmly on them.

She smiled a little, but her eyes were worried. "Just wanted to make sure you weren't going to take off running."

It was meant to sound like a joke, but she wasn't joking. And he had to admit, if he'd woken up before them, it might have been tempting to get dressed, sneak out, not see them until they'd already had breakfast and came looking for him in the console room. He could have landed them in a spot of trouble, and by the time they dealt with it, they'd have forgotten all about the one wild night they'd all had together.

Who was he kidding? Rose wasn't particularly easy to distract, and when Jack backed her up, there was no shifting either of them. "Suppose you've caught me. What are you goin' to do with me?"

The tension around her eyes eased a little. "Depends." The mattress shifted and she glanced at Jack as he eased down the bed where the Doctor could see him again. "Are you going to feel horribly guilty about the sex?"

The Doctor barked a short, sharp laugh. "Probably."

Rose frowned at him.

"Why?" Jack asked, his voice gentle.

"Gentle" was exactly the word the Doctor wanted. The lad had been so gentle, so careful of the Doctor's dignity and Rose's youth and the issues people from her native place and time often had around sex. There was no end to how much the Doctor appreciated that care. He was going to hurt them both, there was no way around that, but maybe Jack's care would get them through this morning's inevitable awkwardness was less outright pain. "Because no matter what I do, I can't win. None of us can. Everybody loses. Tell me why I shouldn't feel guilty about that?"

Rose shook her head, incomprehension written on her face. Jack said, "Doctor, I think I speak for both of us when I say we have no idea what you're talking about. You want to run that by us again? Or better yet, back up to someplace it makes sense to start from?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. Humans, always having to stick their curious noses into . . . well, everything. "Ancient history, that. Why do you care?"

"Is it _your_ history?" Rose asked.

The Doctor shrugged. "Amongst others."

"That's why," she said firmly.

It didn't surprise him. It just made it worse. Why did they always have to care about him? It would be so much easier if they didn't care . . . . _Right, cos I'm so good at not caring about_ them _. Of_ course _I should expect them to be better at it. I'm a daft fool who's quit making sense in his old age. Or maybe a sight before that._ "This is a terrible idea," he said.

Jack chuckled. "Sounds like you think last night was a terrible idea, too. If that's what 'terrible' means to you, you're not exactly driving us off."

"That's because you don't understand." The Doctor didn't know what was on his face in that moment, but Jack and Rose both stopped smiling.

"Tell us," Rose said gently. "I'll even let you sit up if you promise not to run away."

The Doctor smiled faintly. "Come down here instead?" He patted the bed beside him. He couldn't have them, but he could hold them for a while yet. It wouldn't make things any worse.

Rose moved off his legs and then stretched out beside him. He draped an arm across her waist as Jack climbed over them both, nestling in behind Rose. He was tall enough the Doctor could see both their faces. It gave him the disconcerting impression he was being double teamed. Which he supposed he was, after a fashion.

He was also stalling. As much as he'd sometimes wanted to forget the whole sad business, he wasn't willing to lose the lessons learned. He just went on from day to day, not thinking about it until he needed the reminder. He'd only actually ever told the story to Romana, and that was because she'd needed to hear it from him before she learned the hard way.

"Most human cultures have stories about gods and demons, angels and giants and powerful beings beyond comprehension. Some of them are kind to humans and some of them are evil, but at a certain point, that doesn't really matter. What matters is that they're powerful and beyond comprehension.

"And it's not just humans. Almost every species classed from Alpha to Xi on the Yroxtrens-Traunx Scale has legends of that sort. Gods and goddesses who come down out of the sky to miraculously save or punish the people. Changing the weather and elevating heroes to their own status and making demands and setting quests and killing giants and creating worlds. Angels who brought important messages in the nick of time or gave tests . . . or passed judgments."

"Yeah. So?" Rose asked.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Impatient." She just grinned with her tongue caught between her teeth while Jack chuckled behind her. The Doctor sighed and went on. "Never seen a god, me, or met an angel. But after Xi comes Omicron, and when an alien from an Omicron-class or better society inserts himself into one of those cultures, he becomes that kind of story."

"Always?" Jack asked, his eyebrows rising.

"Often enough," the Doctor said. "Enough that you get a whole bunch of legends about gods and their bastard children. About angels who bred with mortals. About human women or Mtorii men or consorts of just about any other "lesser" species killed or cursed by the angry spouses of their deific lovers. No matter the planet, no matter the race of alien gods, no matter the intentions, it's always the consorts and the children who get the short end of the stick."

His lovers . . . oh, _Rassilon_ , he did have to go and think of them that way, didn't he? . . . were silent, frowning and thoughtful. Jack leaned up on one elbow, stretching over Rose to kiss the Doctor on the cheek. "You do realize how ridiculous this sounds?" he asked.

"Does it?" The acid in his own tone surprised the Doctor, and he tried to curb his temper. He shouldn't—he couldn't—blame them for underestimating his own failings.

"You got an angry spouse, Doctor?" Rose asked.

Jack subsided back down to the mattress as the Doctor shook his head.

"Good." Rose's arm slid over his hip and she squeezed his bum.

"Oi! I'm trying to save you and it hurts like hell. You could at least take me seriously."

Her head tilted back, her gaze fastening on his. "I'm completely serious about your arse, Doctor. Now what do you think we need saving from?"

The answer burst from his lips with a force he hadn't intended. "Me!"

***

Jack had been in full agreement with Rose about not letting the Doctor pretend this never happened, but he'd rather thought he might find himself in the position of trying to explain to her that some people just weren't sexual. And yeah, they were having Uncomfortable Confessions Time, but it wasn't coming out the way he'd thought. The tension in Rose's frame was unmistakable, and without thinking, Jack touched a fingertip to her lips.

She didn't bite him, but she did elbow him. He pitched his voice carefully, filling it with concern underneath the layer of gentle amusement. "Okay, I'll bite. Why are you trying to save us from yourself?"

Rose stilled. The Doctor's eyes were very blue and very distant. "Because it always happens. It's a rule that you don't consort with sapients below Omicron-class. We used to joke about it at the Academy, because it was rubbish. Yeah, sometimes you ended up with half-Gallifreyan offspring, but it wasn't a big deal. Time Lord genetics always win out—I got to be the example."

"What do you mean?" Rose asked.

He shrugged. "My mother was human. For all the difference it makes. My father brought me to Gallifrey when I was eight years old and I entered the Academy."

Jack blinked. "That doesn't make any sense. The genetics can't be anywhere close—"

"Wait a minute," Rose interrupted, "they just ripped you away from everything you knew and . . . ?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Anyway, that's beside the point. We all knew you weren't supposed to behave in certain ways, and we all laughed about it. Our elders at the Academy were stodgy and wouldn't know fun if it hit them on the nose. Oh, there were some students who followed the rules just because they were rules, of course. The rest of us, we knew that rules were made to be broken."

"Why does this feel like it's going to become a lesson on hubris?" Jack murmured.

The Doctor ignored him. "And so three students who knew better than anyone else decided to take a trip and break some rules before graduation. Most students did, sooner or later—kind of like your Easter holidays—and nobody ever talked about those trips afterward, so I don't know if everybody had the same experience. But these three students—let's call them Koschei, Ushas, and Theta—went to Hameln in 3.1/petal/7 for a bit of harmless fun. They solved some problems, went to some parties, accepted some accolades, and yeah, were generally worshiped, even if no one called them gods."

"It's going to end badly, or he wouldn't be telling us," Rose said.

"Mmm-hmm." Jack stroked her hair, enjoying the way she relaxed against him.

The Doctor might have been feeling guilty, but not so guilty he didn't glare at them. "Koschei had no problem with worship. He was a Time Lord—or would be when he graduated—and they were human-descended, so he could rule them as he saw fit. Worship and attractive young assistants went hand-in-hand, and he saw both as only his due.

"As far as Ushas was concerned, the inhabitants of Hameln were only a convenient population to study. Worship was inconsequential, except that there was always someone offering her food and drink when she surfaced from her studies and she never had to look far for lovers. If she got bored with one, there would certainly be others handy."

He closed his eyes. "Theta thought he had things figured out. He was having a wonderful time exploring Hameln and he had no trouble making friends—they didn't know who his parents were or what house he was from, and wouldn't have cared if they did. And it seemed ridiculous to him that it was more dangerous to be lovers than to be friends. Still, he didn't want to risk children—he was far too young for that kind of responsibility, and he knew too well what life would be like for them on Gallifrey. He took up with a young man named Georg, who always understood that Theta would leave, eventually. But they were quite devoted to each other in the meantime, and having great fun."

Of course it was the Doctor who would have been less lordly and more devoted to one young man. Jack reached past Rose to stroke the Doctor's back comfortingly. He startled and his eyes flew open, hard with pain.

"Oh, Doctor," Rose murmured, reaching up to touch his face. "What happened to him?"

He looked away. "Ushas had her experiments in the city of Lorelei, where she wasn't bothered much, and Theta and Georg stayed there when they weren't popping about the planet. Koschei preferred the capital, and was well on his way to ruling the planet for as long as it amused him before they had to go home. None of them checked to see that the beautiful lake Lorelei was built around was a crater lake, and the volcano it topped wasn't extinct, only dormant. The gas discharge wiped out half the population. Ushas used a pocket teleport to join Koschei. When she came back to check on her experiments, they were ruined, and she never let anyone forget it. She never spoke a word in grief for her harem."

"And . . . Theta . . . and Georg?" Jack asked.

"Not even there. When they got back from their latest adventure, Theta did everything he could to help clean up the mess. He hadn't been able to prevent the tragedy—Lorelei was on a fault line, and small earthquakes happened all the time. There was nothing he could have seen coming. But he thought he could help ease some of the suffering afterwards. The people of Lorelei kept asking why he hadn't stopped it, and what could he tell them? They'd thought he was a god, and instead, he was more like the janitor." He drifted off into brooding silence, and this time, Jack didn't prompt him. Rose laid her head against his chest and he shuddered.

"They came to them at night and dragged them away, one from the other. Theta, they called a demon, or near enough. The kept trying to exorcise him, and there's only so much damage even a Time Lord can take. I'd never have escaped on my own. It was only luck that Ushas came back the next day to pick through her experiments and saw—" He swallowed, his eyes dark. "She saw what became of Georg, and she went looking for me."

Jack wanted to be closer to him, to hold the Doctor next to his skin and comfort him, but he was afraid to move and break the spell of memory.

"They'd cut off his hands and feet, cut off his genitals and stuffed them in his own mouth."

Rose made a horrified little squeak and Jack held them both tighter. "Doctor . . . " Jack said.

The Doctor forged ahead, oblivious. "They wrote 'consorts with demons' on his chest in his own blood. Ran him up on a pole in front of the largest public building in the safe zone. I hoped he was dead first, but there was so much blood—"

"Doctor!" Jack said more loudly. "You're scaring Rose."

The Doctor glared at him. "She wanted to know! You both did. There are some things I don't get to have, because nothing I do will ever make it safe!"

That was hard to argue with. "Doctor, you're not the only one who's ever failed to protect a lover, and it's always horrible. But that's got nothing to do with grading sapients onto some kind of evolutionary continuum—" The Doctor stiffened under Jack's hand. "It's got to do with being fallible, because we're not really gods, any of us . . . ."

"And you know because you've shagged so many and got away with it?" the Doctor snarled. "Nobody's ever turned you down, Handsome Jack, and you don't know how to deal with it?"

Jack got an elbow in his gut, and from the Doctor's little grunt of pain, he didn't come away unscathed, either. "Stop it, both of you!" Rose said, forcing a little more room between them. "Jack, you're not helping, and Doctor, stop trying to hurt him, ‘cos you're not getting rid of us that easy."

***

Her two blokes in bed had been fine as a fantasy, and the sex was amazing. Rose had never stopped to think she might have to play peacemaker between the two while she was still naked.

Oh God. She was naked. She pushed the thought aside—she didn't have time to be embarrassed. If she wanted to still have this tomorrow, a week from now, a year from now, the Doctor's issues had to get sorted and Jack had to know they really wanted him—he'd been unsure enough yesterday, and the Doctor lashing out wasn't going to help any.

She couldn't see Jack, but the Doctor was staring at him uneasily, and if the tension he radiated behind her was any indication, it was mutual. "I shouldn't have said that," the Doctor admitted. "But you're still wrong."

"Is he?" Rose asked. "Because it sounds to me like you lost someone who meant a lot to you, and it was horrible, and you never took that risk again. The trouble is, unless Jack and I don't mean anything to you, you're taking that risk anyway. Do we not mean anything to you?"

He gave her a shocked look. "You know you do!"

She did know, but she still felt better to hear him say it. "I do know. But Jack doesn't."

Jack shifted behind her. The Doctor's gaze softened, and she knew he was meeting Jack's eyes. "Jack, I wouldn't be in this fix if I didn't feel that way. Would never have let you this close. I still shouldn't have."

Rose could feel Jack's relief as if it radiated from his skin. He said, "I'm glad you did. And now that you have . . . we don't want to go back. We'll take the risk."

The Doctor's forehead creased in a frown. "It shouldn't be your choice. I'm supposed to—"

"Oh, _sod_ what you're supposed to do," Rose said. "It's not any riskier now than it was three days ago. Doctor, I almost got killed on our first trip, just by traveling with you and being . . . " _jeopardy friendly_ " . . . me. Traveling with you is dangerous, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

"I knew I was going to hurt you," the Doctor said.

 _I love you. I'm not sure why, but I do,_ Rose thought, frustrated. _But I really want to shake you right now. Why are you being so difficult?_ "But that's not you. The possibility we might get hurt? That's got nothing to do with your being a Time Lord. People just . . . get hurt, sometimes." She sighed and scooted closer to him again, resting her forehead against his chest. "My mum, she's the one who sent Dad out for that vase. And he died. It wasn't her fault—it was the driver of the Citroen—but it took her a long time to forgive herself. How many hundreds of years has it been, Doctor? When are you going to forgive yourself?"

He just shook his head, like he'd run out of things to say. Was that progress?

"It's not really about taking lovers, Doctor," Jack said, snuggling in behind her again. "It's not even about traveling with you. It's about cultural context. Traveling with you, Rose and I are constantly outside our own cultural contexts. Nobody's going to judge us like we're friends or neighbors who turned against them—we've stepped outside of that. It might still be risky, but not because we're lovers now. Not even because we're human."

"But _I'm_ never in that kind of danger," the Doctor protested.

"Oh no?" Rose asked. "And what did Henry van Statten do to you?"

He gave her a very fake blank look. "To me? Nothing. He wasn't particularly kind to that Dalek. Or his staff."

She wished he wouldn't lie to her. It made her tired. "Uh-huh. That's why you were in the med bay afterwards, using the dermal regenerator on those marks all over your chest." He gave her a scandalized look. "What?" she asked sharply. "I know I wasn't supposed to know about it. But I'm not blind or stupid."

"You certainly are not," Jack murmured in her ear, running his hand along her ribs and down to her hip before pinching her bum—like he could distract her from being angry by turning her on. Actually, it might be working. Now if only the Doctor would get distracted by her nipples hardening against his chest and forget to be an idiot . . . . "Doctor," Jack said, "you and Rose are in love, and everyone can see it. Nobody can tell from the outside whether you're shagging or not. So if you're just not interested—if it was just sex pollen—then okay, it makes sense to keep it just once."

Rose drew in a sharp breath, surprised at how much the thought hurt. He'd said he'd had at least one lover before, but maybe that was the exception, not the rule, or maybe he wasn't really interested in women. Not that she'd begrudge Jack, but it would still be hard to know that he had that with the Doctor, and she couldn't.

Jack went on. "But if that's not the case, it's stupid. She won't be any more or less in danger whether the relationship stays sexual or not."

"Doctor," Rose asked, her chest tight with suppressed emotion, " _was_ it just the sex pollen?"

He was silent for what seemed like an awfully long time before he said, "No. At the end . . . it wasn't the sex pollen at all."

Rose relaxed between them. "Good. Please don't push us away."

"What about you, Jack?" the Doctor asked. "Are you in danger?"

Jack laughed like it didn't matter to him, but Rose knew it was a lie. She knew how much they meant to him—it had shone out of his eyes the whole time they were making love yesterday. "Only by traveling with you. You two are the lovebirds."

"Aren't you, Jack?" Rose asked. "In love with us, I mean?" _Or have I really been reading this so very wrong . . . ?_

He was going to lie to them, she knew he was. She felt him inhale, knew there would be a big cheesy grin on his face and . . . then he kind of deflated. "Doesn't matter," he said firmly. "That kind of thing has to go both ways."

Rose bit her lip, ignoring the blush she felt spreading across her cheeks. "Or all three. And what makes you think it doesn't?"

The Doctor bent to kiss the top of her head, and she felt him reach over her to touch Jack, his arm moving in a caress.

Jack hesitated before he spoke. "Cultural training. On _your_ culture. But maybe I'm wrong—you seem awfully persistent about this being a threesome, not a pairing."

At least he was behind her, and couldn't see her face. "Yeah, well, not like it's the first time. Of course, I wasn't drunk this time, and we're not going to pretend this never happened, so it's a lot different."

Oh, he was laughing at her, she could feel him shaking with it. "Why Rose, you sexual adventurer, you."

She rolled her eyes and looked up to find the Doctor smirking at her. "Oi! That's it, Jack. If you're going to make fun of me, at least make me breakfast first." She tried to wriggle out from between them.

They just held her tighter. "Oh, I'm not making fun of you, Rose. As a matter of fact, I think we should go adventuring together again soon." Jack's teeth nibbled at her neck and she shivered. "Very soon."

"You're just trying to get out of making breakfast," the Doctor teased.

Rose gave up on going anywhere. She sighed softly as Jack slid a hand up to cup her breast. "He might be, Doctor, but he has a point."

The Doctor laughed at them softly. "Let's go get breakfast, you two. Rindeltz III has the best waffle house in the entire sector. And after that . . . today can be whatever kind of adventure you want it to be."


End file.
